Comments

I agree that Pay2Win sucks for poor (and cheap) people. But I'm also always worried that I don't have as much TIME as some other players. If an unemployed person can spend many hours every day, both earning in-game cash and getting more skilled, how am I gonna be able to compete with that? I can see how a workaround to that could indeed be that those who have money but not time can spend some of said money instead of the time they don't have. But let's face it: there is always going to be other people on the net with more time or money than you, or both. I think the solution is, as David has mentioned in the videos, to filter your experience to only include your friends. And between friends you can probably reach an understanding of whether or not you feel that paying for in-game credits is ok or not. Maybe even get together as a group and pay for a big cargo hauler that one of you will pilot while the rest fly escorts? The problem only exists because you all seem to be thinking PvP, and not PvE.

The approach to buying in-game upgrades, seems to be a trend in a lot of games these days, certainly on mobile devices.

The concept of in game advertising sounds appealing to me, space stations advertising brands, where the brand owners pay for Frontier Developments for the brand visibility, motor manufacturers brands applied to craft in a specific system etc., thoughts ?

ELITE has always been about skill. To be able to "skip" ahead by spending real money is something I consider cheating. If this is the way it's gonna be I'm also out, which makes me really sad since I have waited 18 years for this game.
Because nothing is decided yet I'm gonna keep my pledge for now and hope you will reconsider.
To be honest, I'm rather paying a monthly fee than this.

I absolutely disagree with being able to buy in game currency given it will give others a real advantage in game. If I want to play a game like that I can switch the computer off and play real life.. At this time having just read the http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/23/elite-dangerous-brabens-square-peg/ article I am totally confused about how multi-player will work, especially surrounding PvP.

Well said, Joerg! I've been spreading the word as well as I've been able to as well and this project really seems to come as a surprise to many out there. What we need is exponential spread through word-of-mouth and some sexy updates from Frontier.

Speaking of lack of marketing: I just googled for retro gaming forums, looked at some and found that most of them had no information at all about this project! I signed up to some of them and posted the info (with a link to Kickstarter), but there are surely a lot more forums out there. So please google, go there, register, and post! It's the best we can do to support the project. I assume that the majority of people likely to support this game are fans of the original, but it will probably also make sense to post to normal (not retro) gaming forums.

Sacen.... I thought you made a mistake with the "is" comment ... but then I realized you made a mistake with the "s" on the final word. AHAHAHAH.....my comment is awesome. In all seriousness, this is my last comment when it comes to this project, I just am disheartened and disappointed.

The main problem with the "pay for credits" approach (besides the facts that it just feels squeasy and it's a bit unfair for users with little money) is that it makes the game inconsistent in itself. It's no longer a closed, consistent universe, instead money appears out of the blue from "outside" (through black holes?), and a player's power does no longer reflect his skills. It just doesn't feel right and will spoil the fun for many.

I feel much more comfortable with the idea to pay for personalisation, as someone suggested below, e.g. a fancy paint job for your ship, or maybe customisation of buildings you can leave on a planet (after paying for them with hard-earned in-game money). It would make the game more colourful and interesting for everybody, but doesn't affect your game progress.

Please think about it. There's nothing wrong with making additional money to pay for servers etc., but it should not affect fairness.

I'm dead against ANY form of in-game credit purchasing. It ruins the challenge of a game in single player and makes a mockery of the idea of a multiplayer game. The only thing acceptable would be ability to buy add-ons etc.

I think a more honest form of continuous income would be a small, low subscription to access multiplayer servers, if additional income is needed.

I don't care about updates and 'in game videos' etc. I just want this game made. Doubters - I would ask you to put your faith in David and the team, based on previous delivery, which is why we are all here, and sit tight. Forget minor niggles/personal preferences. We have one good chance here and it needs our support. The only thing this KS needs is more publicity. Maybe we can agree to up/double our pledges if we get in the ballpark. After all if you've pledged 20 quid, 40 quid is hardly going to kill you - and we get the game we've been waiting for. Spread the word yourselves and FD, get some serious professional promo going. I found out about this from a guy I hardly know on facebook. There will be loads like me that would get on board if they knew about it.
ps. NO to buying power with real money.

No faith lost here! Thank you for another update, they come quicker than I'd expect them too. It needs awareness more than updates, am sure lots of folk out there who just don't know about it yet and plenty more to be pledged. People who sit back saying oh I'll pledge if it gets closer to the goal- weirdness- why, it'll make it or it won't, pledge now if you want to what is the point in waiting, if we all thought like that it'd be at £0 with a bunch of idiots watching waiting and no doubt moaning about it's lack of progress!

David is your heart in this?
Watching the videos you have supplied i believe it is.
People are doubting you though because of the lack of update material and although it kills me to say so i have to agree.

It saddens me to think this might not happen and it's looking very probable that you won't reach your funding because of lack of material updates.

Lol, people get so upset about an idea, not yet realized. We should just hope this gets of the ground, and worry about the business model later., Also anyone sad enough to upgrade ship with real mone probab had no friends, and so this may be the only fun they get in life. Anyone seen South Parks Make Love not Warcraft? If this ends up like that would also be rather fun

No to supplemental purchase of credits by real money... The Ships weapons should reflect the persons skill set. NOT the size of his wallet. or the contents thereof, or else you will get s lot of Indonesians and other poor people being made to sit and earn gold and then sell it on Ebay or something like that. Likewise for payed content.

I will withdraw or change my pledge if this stays in and simply not play the game and not recommend it.

Note that the FAQ just says "We will *probably* allow the supplemental purchase of Credits with real money". So it's just an idea so far. I don't like that idea, too. I hope it will simply be abandoned if enough supporters state their concerns (in a polite way).

There is no game yet and there is already paid content planned for it ? I've pledged and I feel cheated to be honest. This was supposed to be old school game experience and we get this :(

I do understand that that 15 ships compared to 40 in First Encounters is a sacrifice because new ships are supposed to be damageable etc. so a lot more work is involved but please, paid content discussed right now where many of us who had faith in David Braben raise some serious concerns about the game. Sorry this cant end up well.

We are paying for the game, and then if we like we can pay again to advance quickly in the game? And this is good, how? If you were a publisher you would be getting ripped to pieces for this tosh. Surely that means you want us to pay for the game twice! Even the Pay2Win models are less greedy than this, at least they don't expect you to pay upfront in the first place.

And how exactly can a game be DRM free if you also can pay for in game money? Shouldn't that sort of thing be protected by, for example, being attached to an online account? We can't buy things when offline, and if we do buy them online and then share them offline what is to stop us sharing them?

I have lost all faith in this project now. I am greatly disappointed I really wanted to see Elite 4 made, but this project has shown us that although the fans have enthusiasm for the game, the developers just want to milk the cash cow.

I am moving my money to developers that actually have a dream that involves a game, and not just a dream of a retirement package.

for the people who are complaining regarding the marketing going on; If you have pledged, you are now a supporter & investor in the project. I personally think that rather than sitting back and disagreeing with things, we should be more than happy to put some effort into getting things like this done ourselves - I've been doing what I can to spread word of this and get others to pledge. We should all do the same.

@Joerg Starkmuth
Well, obviously they do what they want to do, but giving our feedback on their presentation by writing critiques is always better than doing it with our wallets by rescinding our pledges, as a decreasing amout would be the true sign of failure for this project.
And we want this to succeed... and FD should want it too, as it's their livelihood and their pet project since forever. But I and many other have not been convinced that FD knows what's doing, and we want them to show us, so that we can go on and have an heasy time building momentum.

I've already pledged 150£, more than I pledged on SC, and that's as much as I'm going to do, but I did it only based on the influence the original Elite game had on me.

I too concur with what everybody is saying: FD is not reassuring us that, in the remote (seeing the trend) event that they manage to complete successfully this pledge, they will deliver on the promise.

We all understand that there's a risk included in any such project, but exactly for this reason you've to show us how much you're committed to making it a reality, and that you've the skill, not only technical but organizational, of marketing vision etc. etc. to pull it out.

I find the almost aggressive attitude of some (few) people here complaining about insufficient marketing for this project rather disturbing. Please stay polite or shut up. After all, it's not you who are making this game, you'll only pay if it actually happens, and you will surely not encourage anybody with that style. If you want better marketing from a small company with a low budget, make constructive suggestions or simply spread the word.

Yes I have been contacting various organisations who have an interest in space and basically telling them:' lets face it we are highly unlikely to enjoy interstellar travel in our lifetime so please back this space sim as it will be the next best thing'.

They were most likely inspired by programmes like Star trek and star wars, etc.

Ps I hope there are some extraterrestrials, and friendly ones, in this game as it is looking with all the exo planets being discovered that we are not alone so it would be pretty silly to travel the whole galaxy and only see humans.

This project was going nowhere then a chance spot by The Register and BBC News and the pledges went from around £16k up to around £400k. Perhaps some more marketing and a little more hype is required.

I played the original Elite back in my youth and had a PC version some years ago. I am supporting this because I know if it gets funded it will be an awesome game. One to which I will be happy to put my time in to playing.

It is worth noting that Frontier are a relatively small cpmany and they do not have huge resources to divert into putting updates on here every 5 minutes but they need to generate some momentum. Perhaps all those who have pedged should also post it on their social media site of choice...I know I do regularly.

Much more publicity is needed for such a wonderful game with so much potential although the response has been impressive based on how little publicity it has been given, it would be such a shame for a great game not to be made as not enough people were even made aware of this Kickstarter campaign.

I would be gutted if this project fails after waiting 20 years for the new elite game to be made, I like many others are loyal fans , I played the first elite at all hours and enjoyed frontier.. If Frontier developments want this kick starter campaign to have the best possible chance of success then why don't you do a little research and emulate the most successful kick starter campaigns in history? Look at their winning recipe . update regularly , try to get publicity. If this fails then this would be a terrible loss.If this prodject looks like it may fail I would double my plege near the end. Listen to the comments and don't just sit there PLEASE !!!!

Regarding my comment 8 hrs ago, it will be 2013 of course not January 2012 which came and went...

On a more serious note - project needs perseverance and determination to succeed, the type where Rowan Atkinson gets the Rolls-Royce people at Crewe to get a V16 engine off the bench into the bonnet of a Rolls-Royce Phantom for his film or the effort leading to James May reaching 407km/hr in a Bugatti Veyron!

I think there needs to be a huge escalation in publicity for this project.

I have been patiently waiting and checking the progress of this project for the last 20 years and despite the large amounts of time I spend on the internet I haven't seen any reference to this project other than at the Frontier Developments website. Nothing on Facebook, or on any of the regular news websites that I frequent. I have spent the last few days spreading the news on all the gaming forums that I'm am a member of , where there had been absolutely no mention of this game.

Many people see the Kicktraq trend (currently at £1,930,402) and say, there's no need to worry. Yes, there are very real reasons to worry. Kicktraq trend is wildly inaccurate, and will continue to decline. The projection is generally more accurate, and we are now pushing into dangerous territory (with a low of £899,131, and a high currently of £1,568,937).

So, if things continue as they are, even with a slight bump at the end this KS will fail under current course and speed. FD needs to get it in gear, because they are currently throwing this project away.

I agree with other posters who feel unsatisfied about this KS campaign. I too feel that Frontier Dev don't seem to understand the ingredients of a good KS campaign and I'm starting to wonder whether I should have pledged. After seeing the Star Citizen campaign this is so underwhelming, and it makes me doubt about the credibility of Elite:Dangerous. Judging by how much the amount pledged per day has decreased I'm not the only one feeling like that.

There is still time to correct that though, but it will take some massive update to change this trend...

I don't think David and pals in Frontier don't really understand what makes Kickstarter successful. While I already pledged 50 pounds, they need to give us more informations to make it successful and make a bigger game. I'm not expecting Star Citizen level of money, but hey, this is just not good.

We need more than you're giving us! I'm as excited about the prospect as anybody else as I played Elite and Frontier in my youth, but that's the only reason I've pledged so far. I could be convinced to increase my pledge based on more information (videos, ship details, gameplay details) about the direction this game will be taking. For instance, can I walk around in my ship and look out the window ? Roughly how big will the universe be ? Can we own structures, or build structures on planets or in space ? How many people will multiplayer support ? Will there be persistent servers ? etc Please reconsider holding back information such as this, I dread this project failing.

Way back in the "Day of old" while at primary school, during the holidays someone had to take the BBC B home, to make sure it wasn't stolen over the 6 week summer holiday - and that person was my Mum :) - Elite for me was the game that started it all, turned me into the "geek" that I am today - it would be a great shame if now this didn't happen - we all want it, but its not us you have to convince - its the "new" gamers the youngsters that never say a BBC, that never crashed while saving up for docking computers, the players that haven't used a jump drive, and to get them you need to get the message out there - a bit on the BBC website really isnt enough! - Get in the PC Press, get it on TV, run an advert, but what ever you do do it quickly - please?